What does James 1:25 mean?

In the previous two verses, James made a useful analogy. He compared someone who hears God's Word, but doesn't do what it says, to a man who forgets his own face immediately after looking into a mirror. Both ideas should seem ridiculous to us. Why look, if you're not going to act on what you see? Why look, if you aren't going to remember what you just saw?

Here, James explains how believers ought to handle their study of the Word of God. Christians should look intently into the perfect law, the law that gives freedom. When they routinely do that and obey what they see there, they will be blessed in what they do.

When James uses the word "law," he is not likely talking about the Law of Moses. James was one of the leaders of the church in Jerusalem and was likely writing to a very Jewish audience who knew all about that Law. More importantly, though, he was writing to Christians about what it means to live out our faith in Christ.

James is not calling believers to see legalistic rule-following as the path to being blessed. He is writing to people who believe that Jesus fulfilled the Law of Moses by obeying it perfectly Himself. In Christ, the Word has been planted in us (James 1:21). That's the Word we hear and obey because we trust our Father. That Word is the perfect law, the law of the love of Christ, which brings freedom.

We will be blessed in what we do, this verse promises, as we look intently into that law and obey it.